Ice Cube reprises his role as Captain Dickson in “22 Jump Street” out this Friday, June 13.
Read what Ice Cube had to say about the sequel in our exclusive interview.
–
How excited were you when you found out there would be a sequel to “21 Jump Street”?
–
I was pretty excited mostly because that means people loved the first one and what was cool was that they were expanding my role, it wasn’t just going to be in the office. Sometimes they can do a sequel, but they’ll leave your character out if you’re not significant enough, so it’s cool.
–
The Jump Street operation has moved across the street now. Tell us about your new headquarters?
–
I mean it’s a sequel you know, so you got to spend more money, you know it’s mandatory to spend more money on a sequel. So he has an office that looks like he should be a Captain of the “X-Men” or somebody [laughs]
–
Captain Dickson seems angrier than ever. Was it fun to play that out?
–
It’s always cool to take a character whose so cliche and when the directors let you go over the top with it, it makes it that much funner to play. And it’s R-Rated so you could say whatever comes to mind … It was fun cussing out Jonah and Channing Tatum too, I’m pretty sure nobody cussed them out.
–
What was it like reuniting again with Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller?
–
Much better the second time because they knew what they were doing … before it was their first time working with live actors. They had directed “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and then their next movie was “21 Jump Street” so they were trying to figure out how to work with the actors, how to keep the balance, how to make Jonah happy, too. This time around they just knew, they knew everything, who we were, our temperaments, who we would go for, who we wouldn’t. It just made it that much easier.
–
What do you love about working with Channing?
–
That he’s always chill. He’s always cool and ready to go … some people come to the set and you can tell that they just had a fight with their agent. Channing was like “Yo” always ready to go, a breeze, and was cool to hang out with.
–
Jonah when we spoke with him he told us that you were his childhood hero, and really admires you. Plus he’s a huge hip-hop head. Tell me what you admire about Jonah as a writer, producer, and actor?
–
You know he’s just off the charts as an actor for sure … I mean he can really play any role right now, and as a producer I got a chance to see how serious he is about keeping everything in focus, and not getting so happy with the laughs that he forgets the heart. It’s cool you know you learn a lot, just by looking at him work that aspect.
–
One of my favorite scenes with you is during the lunch scene when you kind of flip out. Can you tell me about during that scene?
–
They had this nice buffet of food set up, and they gave me one take at it. We did a little rehearsal … I did a walk through one time with the camera man, just so he won’t miss nothing, and I just went for it. It was ad-libbed. It was just to have fun, and make a mess. I just used everything that had happened as my fire.
–
Queen Latifah also has a great cameo. How did that come about?
–
Well they were asking me who do you think could play your wife. Who do you think could play Captain Dickson’s wife more or less, I was like you know Captain Dickson is pretty hard, so you had to have somebody that people believe could tolerate him … The only person that came to mind was Queen Latifah, so it was like we couldn’t pick nobody else … I was so glad that she was able to do it, it wasn’t a big part. It’s always cool when stars come out, and they show up.
–
You and Queen Latifah worked on “Barbershop 2” together and there is a confirmation of a third one, could you tell us more about that?
–
Well you know we’re just now getting everyone’s deal finished, so once we get everybody’s deal’s finished we’ll jump into really making the movie, and figuring out exactly what the movie needs to be and it’s a process.
–
We also loved that whole ending sequence. What was it like filming that?
–
You know you have a pretty good movie, you know people like it when they want to see more. They wanted to shoot an ending … it’s the cherry on top. So once they told me you know we’re going to need you a few extra days in LA to shoot this ending part, then before that they told me they were getting a doll made, and I was like what the hell? What kind of ending is y’all doing. So it was all set up, and by time I got there, I just had to conquer my lines, they had everything set up, so it was fun to watch.
–
So if you could send the guys out on your mission, what would you like to see Schmidt and Jenko do?
–
Ain’t no telling, you know we’re still in nursery school, pre-school, veterinarian school. I think they came up with about 4 or 5 on the ending credits that would’ve worked. So I’m kind of down to see a couple of them.
–
Do you think Captain Dickson would be fun as his own spin off?
–
I mean it’s really about talking to Neal H. Moritz, he’s the super producer here, and it seems like Captain Dickson needs something. Can’t just wait for Channing and Jonah to do a movie for Captain Dickson to pop up. I think Captain Dickson might need a spin off.
–
Also I know you’re executing producing “Straight Outta Compton” Do you have any updates for us on that?
–
Well it’s moving full steam ahead. I got F. Gary Gray to direct, I have the cast, we’ll make an announcement next week about the cast, and we start shooting in August. So I’m pretty excited.
–
What else are you looking forward to this summer?
–
You know I’m working on “Ride Along 2” this summer, look for “Everythang’s Corrupt” in September!
–
